NPC Spawner Wiki
An SKSE plugin that spawns random NPCs near the player on a timer. NPCs appear within a configurable radius, idle in place, and persist until the max limit is reached. When the limit is hit, the oldest NPC is removed before a new one spawns.
Quick Start: Install via your mod manager and load a save. NPCs start spawning automatically. Adjust timing and limits in Data/SKSE/Plugins/NPCSpawner.ini.
How It Works
- Runs automatically after the game finishes loading data
- Collects all valid NPCs from the game (skips unique characters, children, and the player)
- Every few seconds (configurable), picks a random NPC from the pool and spawns them near you
- Spawned NPCs appear at a random spot within the configured radius
- When the maximum number of spawned NPCs is reached, the oldest one is removed before a new one appears
Key Features
INI Settings
Configuration is at Data/SKSE/Plugins/NPCSpawner.ini. If the file does not exist, it will be created with defaults on first launch.
[General] ;How many seconds between each NPC spawn. Lower values spawn faster. spawnInterval = 2.0 ;Maximum number of spawned NPCs alive at once. ;When this limit is reached, the oldest NPC is removed before a new one spawns. maxNPCs = 20 ;How far away from you (in game units) NPCs can appear. ;512 is roughly one house-length. spawnRadius = 512.0 ;Write detailed spawn info to the log file. Only turn on for troubleshooting. enableLogs = false
Settings Reference
spawnInterval
Default: 2.0
Seconds between each spawn. Set to 0.5 for rapid spawning or 10.0 for a slow trickle.
maxNPCs
Default: 20
Maximum spawned NPCs alive at once. The oldest is removed when this limit is reached. Higher values use more memory and may affect performance.
spawnRadius
Default: 512.0
How far from you NPCs can appear (in game units). 512 is roughly one house-length. NPCs always spawn at least 100 units away.
enableLogs
Default: false
Logs every spawn and removal with NPC name, position, and current count. Useful for troubleshooting.
NPC Filtering
Not every NPC in the game is eligible for spawning. The plugin skips:
- Unique NPCs -- named characters like Lydia, Ulfric, or Nazeem. Spawning duplicates of these would break quests and look wrong.
- Children -- child NPCs are skipped entirely.
- The player template -- the base record used to create your character.
- Deleted records -- NPCs that mods have flagged for deletion.
Everything else is fair game: bandits, guards, animals, monsters, and generic NPCs from all your loaded mods.
Reading the Log
The log at Data/SKSE/Plugins/NPCSpawner.log shows a summary on startup:
NPCSpawner v1.0.0 NPCSpawner has finished loading. Settings loaded - interval: 2.0s, maxNPCs: 20, radius: 512, logs: false Collected 1847 NPCs for spawn pool Spawner started
With enableLogs=true, each spawn and removal is logged:
Spawned [NPC_:000A1234] Bandit at (12045, -3211, 890) - total: 5 Spawned [NPC_:000B5678] Wolf at (12180, -3100, 885) - total: 6 Removed oldest spawned NPC [00FF1234]
Requirements
- Skyrim SE (1.5.97+), AE (1.6.x), or VR
- SKSE64 (matching your game version)
- Address Library for SKSE Plugins
Link to This Page
Copy a link to share this wiki from your Nexus description or documentation:
